Elder Remnants
by the kitty killer
Summary: Finn Redbreath the Dragonborn reads an Elder Scroll and ends up in the world of Remnant. What will happen, and how will things change? Only time will tell. First story, so go easy on me.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hi guys. Just a quick Authors note before we begin. This is my first story and so I don't have much experience writing, so if you see any spelling or grammatical errors in this, just let me know. Also, if you see any glaring holes in the plot, let me know and I'll sort it out if I can.**

Chapter one. The throat of the world.

Finn Firebreath the dragonborn stood at the Throat of the World. The howling wind blew at his hair and cloak but he ignored the feeling. Instead, he focused of the large dragon perched on the rocks nearby. "Paarthunax," he said. "I have come as you have requested."

The elderly dragon turned his head to face the dragonborn. "Drem yol lok dovahkiin. Do you have them with you? The Elder Scrolls?

From his bag the dragonborn drew three white and gold cylinders, the elder scrolls of Blood, Sun and Dragons. He lifted them up to his mentor and said "yes, I brought all three. But I don't know what they have to do with anything. I mean, with Alduin and Harkon defeated, they don't do anything now."

"That is not entirely true," Paarthunax said. "Arngeir, bring forth the writings."

The greybeard nodded and raised an ancient and tattered scroll. "These are the writings of Jurgen Windcaller," he said. "We found them in a hidden room in High Hrothgar." He paused. "The notes say that if these three elder scrolls are read at exactly the right moment, they will give the reader forgotten knowledge pertaining to the power of the Voice."

The Dragonborn nodded. "I think I see. You want me to read them and find that knowledge don't you? Very well, when do I have to read them?"

Arngeir answered him, "by our estimations, at exactly noon tomorrow. You will have to read them at the exact moment that the sun is directly above."

Finn nodded. Very well then. I will return tomorrow to read them. In the meantime…" he looked towards Arngeir. "Will you permit me to stay the night?"

Arngeir nodded. "Yes of course dovahkiin. You are always welcome here. You may sleep in the side hall."

"Thank you." The dragonborn paused. I think I will stay up here for a while."

"Understood dovahkiin." The monk started to walk down the mountain. The dragonborn waited until he was out of site before he turned to Paarthunax.

The dragon turned his head to look at his student. "Do you have something to say, dovahkiin?"

"Yes actually."

"Then speak. I will listen."

"What do you think this 'forgotten knowledge' is?"

The dragon seemed to think for a moment. "Perhaps it is knowledge on how to use the thu'um. Some words of power cannot be learned by the dovah, like the dragonrend shout. Or perhaps it could only be used by those who truly understand it, like the Soul Tear shout used by Durnehviir."

"Maybe. That could be it."

"Is there anything else?" Paarthunax asked?

"Actually, yes there is," the dragonborn said. "I wish to meditate on a word of power."

"Which word calls to you, dovahkiin?" Paarthunax asked." Fus, Feim, or Yol?"

"Yol," was the response.

"In your tongue, the word simply means 'fire.'" Paarthunax said. "It is change given form, power at its most primal. That is the true meaning of Yol - suleykpower, power. You have it, as do all DovDragonkind. But power is inert without action and choice. Think of this as the fire builds in your su'umbreath, in your breath. Su'um ahrk and focus. What will you burn? What will you spare?"

The dovahkiin opened his eyes. "I think I see now. Thank you."

"You are most welcome, dovahkiin," the dragon replied.

The dragonborn then turned and started his own journey down from the peak.

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That night, as the dragonborn slept in a side hall of the monastery of High Hrothgar, he dreamed. This in itself was not unusual, indeed his sleep was often interrupted by his dreams. That was the price he had to pay for bearing the beast blood. But, instead of his usual dreams of hunting and chasing, he saw a different thing. He was standing on a tower mane of books, each and every one of them with a black title. The tower rose out of a sea of dark liquid, with giant tentacles and other beasts lurking within. In the distance, he could see similar towers. His heart started thumping slightly faster and the blood in his veins turned to ice. He recognised this place. Apocrypha. Which meant…

He turned around and his suspicions were confirmed. A gigantic mas of tentacles and eyes appeared in the space before this eyes. Hermaeus Mora.

The deadric prince of fate and knowledge spoke. "Greetings, mortal."

"Hermaeus Mora. Why have you brought me here? What do you want?

"Why what else would I want? Information. Knowledge. Secrets." The deadra answered.

"What secrets? The secrets of the thu'um from the scrolls?"

The demon laughed. "No. the secrets I desire are much more… interesting."

"What secrets then?" the dragonborn asked.

"The secret of dust is what I seek."

"What do you mean dust?"

The deadra chuckled again. "You will see, little mortal. You will see."

The dragonborn's vision started to darken, everything fading away to the sound of laughter.

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The next day, the dragon born started the climb back to the peak. The climb took two hours and by the time he reached the summit, the sun was already high in the sky. The greybeards and Paarthunax were waiting for him, having left earlier in the day, as was the dragon Odahviing.

The dragonborn looked up as Odahviing landed on a rock near him. "Hail thuri. It is good to see you in one piece."

"Odahviing. It is good to see you as well my old friend."

Paarthunax cleared his throat. "Dovahkiin. It is almost time. You must read the scrolls at the time wound."

"Right." He approached the time wound, an area where space seemed to distort and bend. He was nervous he wanted to read the scrolls, but Hermaeus Mora's warning was in the back of his mind. He shook of the feeling. He had scrolls to read. He reached into his bag and drew out the first scroll, the scroll of sun. The dragonborn opened it.

At first there was nothing. And the suddenly he was bombarded with images. He saw a warrior in azure amour holding a giant, evil-looking sword, a short person slipping a gold ring onto his finger, a man in white hooded robes holding a glowing ball of gold light and a man with some sort of bow around his neck standing next to a blue box. The images raced faster and faster, and he felt like he would collapse. Then the visions stopped at a city made of glass and steel, under the light of a single, broken moon.

There was a flash of white light, a boom, and the dragonborn was never seen on Nirn again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi guys, I'm back with a second chapter for you. I was, quite honestly surprised that this story has read and so I decided to make another chapter. if you guys think I should keep going with this, or have any questions about it, let me know.**

 **Also, I thought I should mention, the Dragonborn in this is a Breton, and focuses mainly on one Handed and Destruction magic.**

 **And finally, I forgot to do this last time, so here goes. I'm only going to do it once for this story, (because really, how many times is it needed?)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything you might read here, unfortunately, just the souls of everyone who reads this disclaimer.**

Forever Fall forest

The Dragonborn woke slowly. He didn't want to get up, the ground was surprisingly soft and warm and- wait warm? It was never warm in Skyrim. His eyes shot open, but he didn't expect what he saw.

He was in a forest of some sort, surrounded by trees with the most curious red-coloured leaves on them. It reminded him of autumn back in high rock when he was a child. So, he must be back in his home country. But how did he get there? And why was he on the ground? Those questions weren't going to answer themselves.

Shifting into a sitting position, he felt something hard beneath his hand. He looked. It was his sword, Dawnbreaker. The deadric artefact glowed slightly, and its gentle warmth gave him some comfort. Standing up, he looked down at his body. The Dragonborn was wearing the armour of Ahzidal, the ancient Nord armour he had uncovered on the island of Solstheim. He spotted his satchel leaning against a nearby tree, with the Elder scroll poking out of the top of it. He scooped it up, reassured by its great weight. The bag had been enchanted to hold anything that is placed in it, but at the cost of having to have the physical strength to carry it all.

He spotted a path among the trees and started down in. If it lead to a town, then he could ask for directions about where he was. He had only got a few hundred meters when he heard something moving in the bushes nearby. His hand went to Dawnbreaker's hilt and his fingers tightened around it, before drawing the holy weapon.

"Hello? Who's there? Come out. I'm warning you, I'm armed." There was no reply. The Dragonborn started to lower his blade, when suddenly an enormous… thing burst out of the bushes. He gave a yelp and jumped back, simultaneously raising the weapon. He took a good look at his opponent, and was surprised. It was a werewolf, at least at first glance. At second glance, he noticed several bone spikes protruding from its shoulders and a white bone mask on its face.

"Whoa brother," the Dragonborn cried. "I too carry the beast blood. You would attack your fellow?" The werewolf before him either didn't care, or was so lost in the blood that it didn't recognize speech. It howled before leaping forward, arms outstretched. The Dovahkiin's sword swung and the werewolf hit the ground, headless.

More howls sounded from the forest and an entire pack of the… things surrounded him. He raised his sword and dropped into a combat stance. One made the bad decision of attacking him and paid in blood. The others lunged at him, but all meet the same fate. The bushes moved again and an enormous bear creature leapt out of the bushes. Acting on instinct, he shouted the first thing that came to mind. "RII…VAAZ ZOL!" A wave of soul-tearing power swept over it and… did absolutely nothing. The creature didn't even flinch. It roared and lopped forward. The Dragonborn, desperate cried out "YOL!" A burst of fire shot out of his mouth and engulfed the beast, the all-consuming flames making short work of his adversary.

The Dragonborn lowered his weapon and looked at the carnage he had caused. A giant scorch-mark lay on the ground, a tree had been cut down in his violent flurry, and of course, the corpses that littered the clearing. But wait, something was wrong. The corpses. They were, evaporating? What. As he bent over to investigate further, he almost missed the creature that had come up behind him. He spun around but was too slow to react.

But someone else wasn't. A loud BANG resounded through the clearing and the monster fell dead. Standing behind the bear was a man with grey hair. He was wearing some sort of black outfit, with a sash of green cloth around his neck. He lowered some sort of cane and placed it on the ground, leaning on it. "Well. That was impressive. Not many would dare travel through such Grimm infested woods alone. Might I ask who you are to travel with such confidence in such a dangerous place?"

The dragon born scowled "I am Finn Redbreath, the Dragonborn." He paused. "Who in the name of the Nine Divines are you?"

The old man smiled. "I am professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy. And I have a proposition for you."


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi guys. I'm back with another chapter of this for you. to be honest, in actually surprised that this has been as popular as it has been. SO I hope this is as good as the last two chapters.** **Also, I was thinking about making a new story, a crossover between RWBY and Familiar of Zero. I already have part of it written up and I think you will love it, if you're into that sort of thing. I wont spoil too much but in involves everyone's favourite ice cream lady,** **And now, Reviews.**

 **Posidon29: yeah I think the bag was a good idea to. I got the idea from the TARDIS, bigger on the inside. And yes the last chapter was a bit short, but hopefully this will make up for it.**

 **oblivion2991: thanks. I like to think Ozpin is a good judge of character. And when you see a guy walking through demon infested woods like it's a walk in the park, you would want him close, if only to keep an eye on him.** **Now, onto the story!**

 **Edit: This has been edited as of 2/10/2016**

chapter 3: the odd professor

Three years later…

Finn Redbreath sat in his office, finishing of the last of his paper work. With classes starting back up the next day, and having three separate classes to teach, he needed to get this done quickly so he could finish preparing. He also had to make sure his first impression was less dangerous this time. He didn't like to think about what had happened last time. He was still pulling out sausages and bits of plaster-board from his satchel.

He sighed as he placed down his pen and stretched, relieved to have finished of the gods forsaken paperwork. He casually looked out his window, only to snap his head back out to make sure he wasn't hallucinating again. He saw a girl blast though the roof of the building next to him and vanish into the clouds.

He stood up and rushed down the hallway, taking the stairs three at a time. He dashed outside and rushed across the court yard only slightly faster than a deer being chased by wolves, and entered the building the girl had flown out of. The cafeteria.

It was worse than he had imagined. The dragonborn had heard about 'food fights' but never actually seen the aftermath of one this intense before. Food, drinks and even entire tables had been shoved aside and thrown everywhere. As he entered, and enormous whirlwind of food and debris blasted past him, slamming into the back wall and depositing four food stained and dazed-looking teenagers.

"By Talos. I have never seen such a thing. What happened here?"

His question was answered once more as the door slammed open again and an angry-looking Glynda Goodwitch burst in, followed by a more amused-looking Ozpin. A random plate of food came flying out of nowhere but Glynda waved her riding crop and it stopped, mid-flight. She waved the crop again, and the entire room sorted itself out, plates and columns fixing themselves, food cleaning itself up and tables moving back into their correct places. "Children, please do not play with your food." The remaining students looked at each other. A girl with bright orange hair let out a large belch.

Professor Redbreath looked at the hole in the ceiling. "Where did the other girl go?" his question was answered when said girl crashed through the roof of the building, crushing a table. She stood up after a second and showed that she was unharmed.

Ozpin moved behind the irritated Glynda. "Let it go," he said.

"They're supposed to be the defenders of the world."

"And they will be, but right now, they are children, so why don't you let them play the part? After all, it isn't a role they will have forever."

"Besides," injected the dragonborn, "It could have been worse. At their age, I once accidently blew up a house." The other teachers looked surprised. "It was fine. I think. Or did I get in trouble. I can't recall. The point is, we should let them have their fun. Now if you will excuse me, I have a class to prepare for." With this, the Breton teacher turned and left, muttering to himself.

Later than day…

Team RWBY was walking to class together. "Hey Blake, what have we got now?"

The black-haired Faunus responded without looking up. "Extreme hunter studies."

"Extreme hunter studies?" Weiss asked. "Why is it called that?"

Yang answered this time. "Because apparently, the person who teaches is a little… extreme."

"Oh yeah, professor Redbreath. I've heard about him." Ruby said. "People say he's a nut job."

"How so?"

Blake responded, "Because he does some crazy stuff. I heard last year he entered the classroom, through the window."

"So, that doesn't sound too bad."

"He was on the fourth floor, Yang."

"Awesome."

"I heard he wrestled an Ursa to death, without using a semblance. And then, he went on to kill a Beowolf with a spoon."

"I highly doubt that" Weiss said as they approached a classroom door.

"Well, we're here." Ruby tried to sound confident but her body language gave her away. She was nervous. "Let's go inside." With that, she turned the door-knob and they entered.

Like most classrooms at Beacon, it was decorated by the teacher personal effects. But this one took the cake. Weapons, armour pieces and other, much weirder things lined the walls. The teacher's desk was covered in piles of paper, odd looking books and some sort of weird, cube looking thing. Weapon plagues were scattered on the walls. Ruby rushed over to look at a weapons rack by the desk. A large hammer, a sword made of what looked like silver and a crossbow were hanging off of it. In a group of glass cases of to the side was an odd looking golden cylinder, a large black book and a sharp-looking dagger. But there was one thing wrong with the room…

"Where's the teacher?" asked Weiss.

"Beats me."

"Hey guys! Over here!" the group turned as one to see Team JNPR in the back of the class room.

"Hey Jaune. Has the teacher been in yet?"

"Not yet." Pyrrah replied.

Other teams started to file in. soon the entire class was full, except for the teacher.

They didn't have to wait long. The door opened and in stepped professor Redbreath. For a person with his reputation, he actually didn't look to bad. He wore bulky, tan and brown robes with a hood and a strange, poncho-like flap on the front and back. He had a large hammer strapped to his back and a sword at his waist. He walked to the front of the class.

"Listen up, whelps. I am Professor Redbreath and I will be your teacher. In this class you will be pushed to your limits and further, as I find a way to teach you several life lessons. As such, i have only accepted the best teams of your year level. But first, I want to know what my students are capable of. I will need a volunteer."

Several people put their hand up, including Yang. The Professor pointed at her. "You, Miss Xiao Long. Show me what you can do."

Yang smiled and walked to the front. "Attack me," the teacher said. "Show me how skilled you are."

Yang raised her arms and got into a fighting stance, Ember Celica extending over her arms. Professor Redbreath also drew his own weapon, the large war hammer on his back. The thing must have weighed at least 35 kilograms, but the professor held it like it weighed no more than a feather.

Yang saw the weapon and whistled in appreciation. "That is a… big hammer. What do you intend to do with it? Knock down a house?"

"No, Miss Xiao Long. Just you. Now, are you just going to stare at my weapon all day, or are you going to attack me?"

Yang let out a yell and rushed the hammer-wielding man only for her fist to be blocked… _by the teacher's bare hands!_ She barely had enough time to give a surprised "huh?" before she was flipped over and thrown over the teachers head. She crashed to the floor several meters away. Shaking her head, she got to her feet, only to see the professors giant hammer rushing towards her face. The weapon blasted the girl back where she landed with a groan.

Professor Redbreath helped her up as he asked the class, "Can anyone tell me what Miss Xiao Long did wrong? Yes, miss…"

"Nikos sir, she gave warning of her attack."

"Yes. That is correct. Ah… Miss Xiao Long, you realised what happened?"

Yes. You cheated. Grabbing my arm like that… cheap trick."

This seemed to amuse the teacher. "Cheating? No, I merely used an already available weak point. However, had this been a real fight, you would have been beaten. And that is what this class is about. Learning to fight superior foes and hopefully come out unscathed. What Miss Xiao Long did here is a prime example of what not to do. She charged into battle without a plan of action and she paid dearly for it. Now, next person. Let's see what you have."

Team RWBY came out of the classroom an hour and a half later drained and sore. The teacher had spent that time testing everyone in the class and then defeating them with just a few moves. It had gotten interesting when Nora stepped forward, raised. The battle between then raged for five minutes before the professor had managed to knock her out.

"Well… that was, interesting." Ruby commented.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Rubes. But still, blocking my punch like that…" the blonde brawler trailed off into thought. That night, the she was still awake late into the night, thinking about the professor's words, and how he had guessed, exactly, what she was going to do.

Professor Redbreath was also awake, but for different reasons. Taking new classes in always made him think about his own past with education. He definatly remembered the college of Winterhold. Despite being a terrible mage, especially for a Breton, he was, for some reason, accepted, rising quickly through the ranks to become the Archmage. Of course, it may have had something to do with the fact that he could destroy boulders and most small buildings with just his voice, but still... he shook of the thoughts of home and instead focused of what he should be doing- meditating. Just as Parthunax had said, he found his knowledge of the Thu'um came more easily when meditated on. It also helped the suppress the overwhelming urge to dominate and destroy everything he saw. the down sides to being the mortal avatar of an all-powerful flying dragon.

he continued his meditation, his thought eventually turning to his current predicament: trapped in an unknown world, with no way back home. that wasn't necessarily a _bad_ thing, after all he did have a lot of enemies, like the Silver Hand and the empire, but it also means he couldn't see his friend either. Lydia, Aeala, Tolfdir, even Serana, despite her attitude.

There was also the fact that everything her was still so... alien to him. Even after three years in this world, the stuff still amazed him, as did the other technological advancements. Automatic lights, electronic scrolls and airships had blown his mind, not to forget indoor plumbing, though his initial reaction towards that aspect of technology was something he would forever deny, as well as that of his colleagues.

That was another thing. Everyone in this world was so different to the people of Nirn, and yet so similar. They still argued and fought over petty thing and insignificant problems, with the Faunus being one such problem. Much like the Khajiit and Argonians back home, they were mocked and judged by humans, just because they had a tail or an extra set of ears. Ridiculous.

Redbreath at long last opened his eyes and turned his attention to the clock on the wall, and noticed that he had to return to teaching in just a few hours, he sighed and then went to lay down on his bed. He closed his eyes, and sank into the depths of Vaermina.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I'm back, with another serving of Elder Remnants for you. but first, I have a few thing to say.**

 **First and foremost, I would like to apologise to everyone who read the last chapter before I edited it. I'm not entirely sure why it was like that, but anyway, I fixed it.**

 **Second order of business. I'm not getting nearly enough reviews for these chapters. if you want me to write these properly, I need feedback. So I'm not going to post the next chapter of this until I get at least five reviews of this one.**

 **And finally, I need an OC but can't think of one, so if you could send me some ideas I might be able to work with them.**

 **With that out of the way, enjoy the story.**

 **Edit: This chapter has been edited as of 2/10/2016**

Chapter 4

The investigation

Weiss stared at the clock in front of her. It was almost the end of the day. Professor Redbreath was finishing a demonstration on how to escape a head lock with a training dummy. Next to her, Jaune was unsuccessfully trying to flirt with her. "So, Weiss, y'know, uh, I-I was thinking after this, maybe we could go grab a bite to eat?" he turned to look at the teacher for a second, and then turned back around to continue. "And, uh um, I-I've got two tickets to that new Spruce Willis movie, if you wanna make the trip to Vale. I hear it's _awesome_." He paused as his words had no effect. "Aaaand maybe after that, we could study together? I mean, you're smart and I'm, uh... Y'know."

He was cut off when the bell signalling the end of class rang out. Pausing his actions with the dummy Professor Redbreath looked at the clock in surprise. "Oh. It appears time got away from me. I'll have to finish this another time. Don't forget next week, you all have your first huntsman's assignments, so come prepared and try to avoid injuring yourselves. i dislike paperwork, nor do i want a repeat of last year." He muttered to himself, "I told him not to move." He cleared his throat. "Class dismissed.

As Weiss stood up, Jaune asked, "Weiss? Did you hear me?"

Without even looking behind her, Weiss replied, "No, no, no, yes."

Upon hearing this, Jaune groaned and did a faceplant into his desk.

Yang patted his head as she passed. "One day."

Back in their dorm room, team RWBY was getting ready. "I thought that class would _never_ end." Blake said as she tightened the ribbons wrapped around her arms.

Ruby looked down from her bunk. "Alright, guys, today's the day! The investigation _begins!"_ the cookie-loving speedster happily leapt off of her bunk, almost landing on top of Weiss.

 **"** I'm glad to see we're taking this _so_ seriously." The heiress said.

 **"** Hey, we've got a plan!" Yang shot over from her bunk. "That's... moderately serious."

Ruby looked around at her teammates. "Right! Everyone remember their roles?"

 **"** You and I will head to the CCT and check the Schnee records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies," Weiss said. "Seeing as I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem."

 **"** The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members." Blake stated. "If I can get in, I can hopefully find out what they're planning." The raven haired girl looked to Yang.

"I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows _everything_ going on in Vale. Getting information out of him shouldn't be _too_ hard..."

"Great! We'll meet up tonight near Yang to go over what we found." Ruby pumped her fist in the air. "Let's do this!"

"Yeah!" the voice came, not from any of the girls of team RWBY but from outside their window. The whole team is taken aback by the appearance of Sun Wukong who was hanging around outside the window, literally.

 **"** Sun! How did you get up there?"

"Ah, it's easy; I do it all the time," was the monkey tailed Faunus's reply.

Weiss wasn't too happy with that statement. "You do _what?!"_

"I climb trees all the time!" Sun clarified. Ignoring Weiss's scowl, he flipped into the room. "So, are we finally getting back at that Torchwick guy?"

Blake stepped forward. " _We_ are going to investigate the situation... as a _team_."

 **"** Sorry, Sun. We don't want to get friends involved if we don't have to."

The monkey Faunus laughed. "Psh! That's dumb! We should always get friends involved! That's why I brought Neptune!" he gestured out the window.

The girls leaned to see the aforementioned teammate of Sun's standing outside, cool as can be. "'Sup?"

 **"** How did you even get up here?" Ruby asked.

 **"** I have my ways." The girls looked at his feet to see he was standing on a very thin ledge circling the building under the windows. "Seriously, though, can I come in? We're like, _really_ high up right now."

Inside the dorm room, the group stand in a circle as Ruby lays down the new plan. "Alright, I'll go with Weiss; Sun, you can go with Blake." She pushed Neptune past Weiss, and he slipped her a wink. Weiss looked mildly shocked but then comes to her senses quickly.) "And Neptune, you can go with Yang since she doesn't have a partner. Everyone good?"

"Actually, Ruby, why don't you go with Yang?" Weiss suggested. "After all, she _is_ your sister."

Ruby pushed Neptune, who was stiff as a board, up next to yang. When she was done pushing him, he rocked back and forth looking nervous. Yang put her hand on his shoulder to stop him from rocking as team RWBY's leader turned to Weiss.

 **"** But, Weiss, who would go with you, then?"

 **"** Well..." the white haired girl looked nervous but carried on with what she said. "I guess Neptune could come with me."

Neptune's face turned suave and he pointed at Weiss as the team leader cracks up. "Hahaha, nah!"

Weiss was not happy yet was powerless to stop Ruby from pulling her by the back out the door. The heiress stuck her arms out fruitlessly trying to get back to Neptune. "But! _But!"_

Holding back laughs, the rest of team RWBY, plus Sun and Neptune, hurried to catch up.

When they reached the courtyard, they were in for a somewhat… strange sight. Professor Redbreath was standing next to a pile of curtain-covered cages, poking one with a long metal pole. "Back I say! Back in your cage!"

Yang walked up to the possibly insane teacher. "What's in the cage, Professor?"

The red-haired teacher whirled around. "Ah, Miss Xiao Long. I assure you, you will find out in due course. But for now, carry on with what you were doing." A suspiciously Grimm-sounding growl echoed from the nearest cage. The errant professor smacked the cage. "Don't make me come in there!"

Shaking her head in wonder, the blond brawler walked off, followed by Neptune.

In the shadier parts of Vale, the club belonging to Junior Xiong was just finished undergoing repairs. The man himself stood behind the bar inside. He was adjusting his cuffs when he heard panicked shouts from nearby. The boss looked towards them as one of his men ran inside and slammed the door behind him.

"Close the door- she's coming!"

"What are you two idiots doing?!" the henchman was spluttering and incoherent. Junior had only seen his men this panicked twice before. Once when that professor from Beacon came here with his scythe-wielding friend, and the time… "Oh no."

An explosion from behind them blasted the door open and in walked the person Junior dreaded to see. It was her, the blonde girl who had blown apart his club and beaten up his men. But that wasn't going to happen this time, oh no.

The bane of his existence stepped forward, an enormous grin on her face. "Guess who's _back_!" The smile didn't fade even as a dozen guns were pointed at her face. Behind them the record playing started to mess up until the DJ removed the needle. Behind the blonde girl, a boy with blue hair spoke up.

"Yeah, so could you define "friend" for me?"

Junior moved forward straightening his tie. "Stop, stop! Nobody shoot. Blondie, you're here! ... **Why**?

Yang grabbed Junior's arm and dragged him to the bar. "You still owe me a drink."

"Whoa-ho-ho-ho, what a woman..." muttered Neptune. He looked to the side to see the twins Melanie and Militia Malachite standing beside him. "'Sup?"

Together, they say "hmph! Whatever." They walked away, noses in the air.

 **"** I don't know!"

"How can you not know?" Yang was incredulous.

 **"** I haven't talked to him! I haven't even _seen_ him since the night you first came in here." He lent over towards Yang's face. "He paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them ever. Came. Back."

Neptune rushed to Yang's side to raise a question of his own. "So where did they go?"

"What kind of stupid question is that? They never came back!" he turned to Yang. "Who is this guy?"

Yang pushed Neptune out of the way with one hand _._ "Don't worry about him; worry about _me_ if I don't find out what I want!"

"I already told you everything!" Junior stated. "Torchwick hired my boys, and I guess he wasn't happy with them, which is _something I can relate to!"_ this last part was shouted to his men behind him, who grumbled and walked away in response.

"Come on, Neptune." Yang turned from the bar and walked away.

Neptune followed with his hands in his pockets. "We get everything we need?"

"Well, we got everything we _can_. Hopefully the rest of the team is having better luck."

I turns out, they weren't. As Yang left the building, her scroll went off. Blake. As soon as she answered the call, Blake's voice came from it, sounding panicked. " _Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back-"_

Her voice was cut off by Sun's. _"HEEEELLLLP! Big robot! And it's big! Really big! That Torchwick guy is in it! But not, like, it didn't eat him; he's, like, controlling it or something!"_

"Where are you guys?"

Just then, behind them, Blake and Sun were seen running through the street with the Paladin hot on their heels before they disappeared from view around the building.

 **"** HURRYYYY!" Sun cried.

 **"** I think that was them," Neptune stated.

"Yeah, I got it." Putting the Scroll away, she quickly circled her ride around - much to Neptune's alarm - and drove off to follow them.

A few streets away professor Redbreath was walking down the footpath. It was quite and empty, just as he liked it. It reminded him of his solitary travels in Skyrim. As he walked, the thought about what to do. 'I could visit the docks,' the Breton mused. 'Although, I don't really want to walk back to Beacon smelling like fish. Oh, I could go to that bar and… no wait they won't let me back in there…' the rest of the teachers musings were interrupted when he heard screaming and felt the ground shake with giant footsteps. He turned the corner only to see Blake Belladonna and another Faunus running on the rooftops, being chased by a _giant robot!_

The professor leapt into action, climbing up a dumpster onto the rooftops and whirlwind sprinting out of harm's way. He gave chase from behind. He watched as the rest of team RWBY appeared, attacking the giant machine and managing to knock it off of the highway to the ground below. He followed them and stood above them, watching from the bridge, waiting for a moment to strike.

The rest of Team RWBY falls beside their leader to take up positions. Roman chuckles from within the giant Mech suit, moving the robot slowly towards the girls.

Ruby started to cry out instructions. "Freezer Burn!"

Ruby and Blake jump back out of the way as Weiss created a huge circle of ice, then she backed out of Yang's way when she jumped into the air and hits the epicentre with her Ember Celica, creating a wave of mist that surrounds the giant robot. Immediately, the Paladin activated its laser sensors to make up for the lost sight, but it barely saw the afterimage of Blake and narrowly missed the dashing Yang. A gun manages to fire at the area between Blake and Yang, but out from the blast came Ruby, who slashed the metal with her blade, causing it to falter.

"Checkmate!" Blake and Weiss go in this time, each girl going for the feet until Weiss jumped up and stabed a sensor before leaping off of a white glyph. The Paladin's foot raised to crush Blake, but Weiss summons another glyph under her teammate to launch her backwards before the crushing blow can land. The giant fires off several missiles, but Weiss and Blake flip backwards as the explosions merely hit where they were.

Finally, Weiss jumps up too high, and the Mech fired a double energy blast at her. Myrtenaster absorbs the damage, but Weiss was thrown back. As she flew, she casted a beam of light from her weapon to the ground under Blake, forming a yellow clockwork circle. The energy was absorbed into the Faunus girl and she launched a flurry of slices at each missile with ease, slicing them to pieces.

Ruby ran into the fray now. "Ladybug!"

Ruby shot herself forward and cut at the robot's legs, then turned as Blake aimed herself at the giant's feet as well. They both dashed forward and attacked at the same time, circling each other around the Paladin with each strike until they both launched themselves into the air and come down together on the shoulder, cutting off the left arm entirely.

Yang didn't waste a second, jumping onto the Paladin's back and punching the top with fiery shotgun blasts. The Paladin struggled to remove its unwelcome passenger, but upon finding that the arm can't reach, it runs backwards through two columns and leaves her embedded in a third before backing away and turning towards her. Just as she is falling down, the remaining arm extends a closed fist, and when it made contact with her, she flew through the column and didn't get up.

"Yang!" Blake started to rush forward, but before she could, a brown shape dropped down from above, striking the giant robot suit on the head with an enormous hammer before leaping back away from it. "Professor Redbreath? What are you doing here?"

"Thank me later! Right now, we have an obnoxious Milk-Drinker to defeat."

The five resumed their attacks, striking the Mech suit from different angles. Redbreath raced forward and brought his hammer down on the front of the robot while Ruby and Weiss had combined their attacks to shoot frozen bullets. The rounds exploded on contact, covering the Mech's body and freezing the joints.

Professor Redbreath smashed Volendrung into the top over and over again before he was knocked away by a giant metal hand. Before he had even landed, he drew Auriel's Bow and fired several shots. The sun-hallowed arrows struck the robot suit and then detonated, creating a large flash of light. The errant professor then leapt backwards and reached into a pouch on his belt. He drew a handful of powdered dust and threw it in the air in front of him. He took in a deep breath and then shouted "YOL…TOOR!"

A plume of fire burst forth from his lips and washed over the Paladin, scorching the front and melting its remaining arm into a pile of slag. "If you had a plan, now would be a very good time to implement it!"

"Right!" Blake throws her Gambol Shroud out for Yang to catch, and the Faunus uses the ribbon to swing the now glowing girl around for a final hit to the robot. Yang's fist blasted into the side of the Mech suit with great force, sending the Paladin flying through the air. The robot smashed into the ground and blasted apart, sending pieces of metal flying everywhere. Roman crawled out of the wreckage, unharmed, and swept some dust off of his suit. "Just got this thing cleaned."

Yang, still burning with power, fired a single shot at the defenceless thief, only to have a woman dressed like an ice cream lady jump down in front of him and open her umbrella, deflecting the shot entirely.

The new arrival hung the weapon over her shoulder as Roman addressed the victors _._ "Ladies, Ice Queen. Possibly psychotic teacher"

"Hey!"

"I resent that!"

 **"** Always a pleasure! Neo, if you would..." The pink-and-brown girl curtsies her enemies with a bow, but Professor Redbreath raised his bow and fired another arrow, at the same time that Yang charged forth, fists raised to strike the outlaws. The arrow and the enraged hunter met their targets at the same time… only to break their image as if made out of a mirror. The five turn just in time to see them escape in a Bullhead. The rest of team RWBY ran up to Yang's side, now cooled down with the end of the fight.

"So I guess he got a new henchman..."

"Yeah," Weiss said. "I guess she really made our plans... _fall apart_!"

While Weiss smiles, Ruby giggles, Redbreath lets out an annoyed puff of air and Blake starts walking away, Yang simply states "No. Just... no."

"What- But, you do it!"

"There's a time and a place for jokes."

"Was this not it?

 **"** No, it just wasn't very good." The blonde turned to follow Blake.

"Well, at least I'm trying!' the heiress said while walking with her teammates.

Professor Redbreath cleared his throat. "Ahem… ladies, are you forgetting something?"

Ruby caught on to what the professor was saying "Oh professor, please don't tell Ozpin about this!"

"Don't worry, your secrets are safe with me. Just be a little more discreet next time." The teacher looked around then frowned. "Didn't you have some friends with you?"

"Yeah… Where are Sun and Neptune?"

Several streets away Sun and Neptune were sitting in the middle stools of the "A Simple Wok Noodle House" eating their plates of noodles with the Shopkeeper behind the counter and their weapons leaning on the other two stools.

As they ate, the blue haired boy turned to his friend and said, **"** They're probably fine, right?"

"Probably."

 **AN: phew! that was a long chapter but hopefully I did alright. As always, if you see any problems, don't hesitate to tell me. And of course, don't forget to review and come back for the next chapter, whenever it comes out.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Someone stole my Sweetroll.

 **A.N: Hello, happy readers. I'm back with another sweet, sweet chapter for you. I'm sorry that it took me two weeks to update this, but I was busy, and I couldn't find the time to do this. It is very likely that I will continue to be busy, so chapters will not be as common.**

 **Also, review replies will now be at the bottom of the page, so you can get into it faster**

 **Now, Onwards!**

 **Edit: this chapter has been edited as of 2/10/2016**

Another day was dawned, with the sun rising over the towers of Beacon academy. But inside, it was less than peaceful. In an arena, watched by dozens, four people were engaged in a battle against just one.

Their solitary enemy jumped and flipped, spun and twisted, dancing more than fighting. And in the end, there could only be one result.

"And that's the match."

The last one to fall said, "Lucky shot," before collapsing.

 **"** Well done, Miss Nikos. You should have no problem qualifying for the tournament."

"Thank you, professor."

Professor Goodwitch tapped her scroll. "Alright, now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more sparring match." She looked around at the observing students. "Any volunteers? Ms. Belladonna?" Blake slammed her book shut and stared wide-eyed at the teacher. "You've been rather docile for the past few classes. Why don't you-"

But before she could finish, a boy raised his hand. "I'll do it."

 **"** _Mercury_ , is it? Well, let's find you an opponent."

"Actually, _I wanna fight_..." he looked around. "Her." He pointed to Pyrrha.

Pyrrha looked surprised. " _Me?"_

"I'm afraid Miss Nikos has just finished the match. I recommend you choose another partner."

"No, it's fine!" Pyrrha said. "I'd be happy to oblige."

Mercury strutted into the arena, visibly sizing up Pyrrha. Their spar began when he made the first attack but was knocked down. Recovering quickly, he deflected an attack and began trading blows with Pyrrha until she knocked him back with her shield.

Up in the stands, Ruby Rose turned toward Emerald, who was sitting behind her. " _Hey_ , your friend's doing pretty _good."_

Emerald gave a smile but rolled her eyes as Ruby turned her back.

Meanwhile, in the arena, Mercury was unleashing a series of powerful strikes. Pyrrha allowed his kick to slam against her forearm before Mercury manages to disarm her, a kick impaling her blade into the ground.

Pyrrha used her Semblance to subtly redirect the direction of Mercury's next kick. As he recovered from the over-high kick, Pyrrha charged him with her shield, but he shot off of it and turned his back to her. Pyrrha started to rush him again.

Mercury, non-chalantly _,_ said "I forfeit."

Pyrrha almost stumbled as she stopped her charge and ended beside him. "You... don't even want to try?"

Mercury shrugged "What's the point? You're a world-renowned fighter. We're obviously leagues apart."

 **"** In that case... Pyrrha Nikos is the victor of the match... again." Professor Goodwitch sighed "Next time you might want to think a little harder before choosing an opponent."

 **"** I'll be sure to do that."

As Mercury was returning to his seat, a loud BOOM! and a shockwave came from down the hall. The sound jolted awake Blake, who had nodded off and sent several people toppling to the floor.

Professor Goodwitch ran out into the hall to see what it was. A few seconds later, they heard her voice cry out "What is going on here?"

Another voice that was unmistakably that of Professor Redbreath answered her. "Ahh… Glynda. Can I have your assistance with a small matter?"

"I swear Finn, if you released a box of Rapier Wasps in your classroom again, so help me…"

"No, no… not this time anyway. No, this is something else."

"Ugh, very well, but this is the last time I do this for you." The blonde huntress poked her head back into her class just as the bell went. "That will be all for today. And remember, the dance is this weekend. But you all have your first mission on Monday. I will not accept any excuses."

As everyone left the class, Mercury stopped beside Emerald, who was leaning against a wall. "Learning is so much _fun."_

Outside, Sun and Neptune were standing around with two other boys, probably their team mates. Glancing at the entrance to the building as Team RWBY walked past, Sun noticed Blake walking with her team, reading at the same time, as she usually did, and ran after her.

"Hey, Blake!" Sun grabbed the black-haired cat faunus by her shoulder. "You uh, doing okay?"

Blake shut the book she was reading. "I'm fine."

Sun scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "So I hear that there's this dance going on this weekend, and it sounds pretty lame, but you and me, I'm thinking, not _as_ lame, huh?"

Blake was stunned, as if her brain had to work an extra second for Sun's words to make sense. "What?"

 **"** The dance! This weekend! You wanna go, or what?"

Blake's expression was not a happy one. "I don't have time for a _stupid_ dance. I thought _you_ of all people would get that."

Blake walked away past her team, leaving Sun to slump in place, rejected. Little did he know that he was being watched from the upstairs window by a certain dragonborn teacher.

The next class that team RWBY had was Redbreath's. The team walked in to see that the classroom had radically changed in the past few days since they'd last had him. All the desks and chairs in the room, including the teacher's, had been shoved to the side and were piled rather haphazardly by the wall. In the centre of the room, where Redbreath would normally teach, were several curtain-covered cages. Said teacher stood off to the side, leaning against the wall.

"Ok everyone. Gather round! I have got something to show all you that you just may find interesting."

Everyone filed in and formed a large semi-circle, with Redbreath in the centre. The teacher looked at the crowd, scanning it with his eyes. They narrowed slightly when they passed over the obviously exhausted Blake but continued onwards none-the-less. However, when he reached the next two people in the line –Emerald and Mercury- a look of confusion came over his face.

"I'm sorry but I don't think I've seen you two in this class before. Might I ask why you're here?"

The grey haired boy replied, "Killing time."

When the teacher looked confused, Emerald elaborated. "We came here for the Vytal Festival Tournament, but got here a few weeks early, so we decided to see what school was like in Vale."

"Ahh." The teacher nodded in understanding. "Well if that's the case, then that means this is your first time in my class, correct?"

"Yes…"

"Well, you may not have known it, but I don't just let anyone into my class. They must be good enough to join. That is why I must ask everyone who enters my classroom for the first time to fight me." The teacher paused. "And this includes you two. Grab your combat equipment and return here in five minutes."

At this the two 'exchange students' rushed off to find their weapons. When they returned to the class, Professor Redbreath was standing in the middle of the classroom, having pushed some of the cages to the side of the class.

The teacher had a rather large hammer strapped to his back but it was the sword at his waist that drew their attention. It had a double edged blade that glowed orange-gold near the hilt and turned white towards the tip. The hilt itself seemed to glow with a bright, white light. As they watched, his arm moved out to the side and attached a dark coloured round shield to it.

"So, who's first?" Mercury stepped forward, and brought his fists into a fighting stance. "Very well then, let's begin."

Mercury attacked first, leaping forward to deliver a large kick to the teacher's head. Redbreath, for his part, simply raised his shield up when he reached him. Mercury hit the shield and rebounded off of it, using his momentum to deliver another kick to his opponent. Again, Redbreath blocked it and then drew his sword.

He swung the weapon at Mercury but was stopped by a kick outwards. He tried again, going for a downward swing this time, followed by a shield bash to knock him off-balance. Mercury managed to dodge the sword strike, but the shield bash knocked him backwards. He regained his composure, managing to avoid the several swing that were sent his way.

He jumped backwards and then shot forwards, delivering a series of bicycle kicks to the heavy black shield. He then turned his assault into a handstand, vaulting over his opponents shield and using his distraction to fire off a heavy round house kick… or at least, that was his plan. It was stopped when Redbreath dropped his sword and grabbed Mercury's boots, _with his bare hands!_ He flipped the boy into the air and then, somehow, leapt after him, jumping several metres into the air and then elbow dropping Mercury to the ground.

Mercury rose back to his feet and resumed his battle stance, but Redbreath laughed. "That's enough. I have seen enough to measure your potential. Please, return to your seat, and send out your friend."

Emerald stepped forward, drawing her two guns. Redbreath drew his own weapon, the enormous hammer, Volendrung. Emerald went a little wide-eyed seeing it, but shook the feeling off. "When you're ready, miss Sustrai."

Emerald raised her guns and fired but Redbreath leapt to the side then rushed forward. Emerald ducked under the first swing of the hammer, then charged forwards, the sickle blades on the underside of her weapons opening as she did so. She swung the blades upwards, only to have them blocked by the hammer. They struggled for several seconds, deadlocked, until Emerald back-flipped away. The two combatants locked eyes. The Redbreath spoke.

"Hehehe… you're good."

"You haven't seen anything yet." Emerald focused on her semblance, sending a mental vision out to her opponent, altering the information entering the teacher's brain. Then, while he was distracted, she attacked from the other way.

Redbreath readied himself as the student in front of him charged at him, then when she was in front of him, he swung, the hammer whistling downwards, and… missed? He stumbled, temporarily thrown of balance at the sudden absence of targets. "Interesting." It wasn't often that he fought people who just seemed to vanish into thin air. No… not vanish. It was like she was never there at all. But if his opponent wasn't in front of him then…

Quicker than should have been possible, he spun around, bringing the hammer up to protect himself. Just in time too, because Emeralds twin sickles had spun downwards, and would have hit his head if he hadn't throw the hammer up. As it was, they slammed down on the shaft, creating another deadlock. Redbreath pushed upwards, then brought his head downwards, head-butting her in the face.

Emerald staggered backwards then raised her guns, but Redbreath took a deep breath and said "Enough!" He returned his hammer to its sheath. "Most impressive Miss Sustrai. You would be a fine addition to this class."

"Thank you… I think."

"Think nothing of it. Now, on to the lesson. Professor Peach has asked me for help on her studies of Grimm. As such I have gone to the liberty of capturing several… specimens for her."

"Wait wait wait." Weiss interrupted. "You have live Grimm? Where?"

In response, Redbreath knocked on the side of the covered cage next to him. "Now, if I may continue, I have seven cages behind me, each with a Beowolf inside. Your task is to take up a notebook from my desk and, working with your partner, sketch the Grimm inside to the best of your ability. You may begin." With that, he started to pull off the tarps covering the cages, revealing the angry-looking Grimm inside.

As Redbreath moved over to his desk and started to drink something from a bottle, the assembled teams got to work immediately, each splitting up into two groups of two. From team JNPR, Jaune and Pyrrah teamed up, as did Ren and Nora. Team RWBY had a little more trouble. Ruby and Weiss went together, but Blake and Yang were another story.

Blake was sitting on the floor by the wall, struggling to stay awake. Yang leaned over her, trying to rouse her, when Jaune's voice came from the other side of the room.

"Ahh, Professor Redbreath, I though you said that there were seven Beowolves in the cages."

"Yes, that is correct, Mister Arc."

"Then why is this last cage empty?"

Professor Redbreath did a spit take, choking on the contents of his bottle. "What? Impossible. I captured all of them myself."

"So you mean to tell me that there is an angry Beowolf running amok somewhere in the school?" Weiss sounded furious.

"Not to worry, does everyone have a weapon with them?" a chorus of yeses answered him. "Good. I should probably call Ozpin and-"his words were cut of when, with a howl of fury, a full grown Alpha Beowolf leapt down from the ceiling above him.

With lightning fast reflexes, Redbreath leapt backwards and then swung his hammer at the Grimm. The Beowolf was knocked to the wall, before it stood back up and launched itself at the nearest person, _who happened to be Blake!_ The faunus in disguise had barely enough energy to look up as the giant demon wolf leapt at her, claws outstretched.

It never got there. With a yell, professor Redbreath charged forward, _bare-handed_ and tackled the beast. He raised his fists and punched it in the throat three times before head-butting it. The Grimm stumbled back then stated to rise. It never got a chance.

The Professor took in a deep breath then, after a seconds pause, shouted three words at it. **"Fus… Roh Dah!"** a wave of force slammed into the Grimm, blasting it backwards into the wall. It hit with such power that the Creature of Grimm simply… came apart, _exploding_ into meaty chunks.

The Professor turned, and marched over to Blake. "Are you alright, Miss Belladonna?"

Blake nodded wearily. Once he realised that Blake was unharmed, his expression turned to a stern one. "Why did you not move, Miss Belladonna? Come to think of it, you do not too well. When was the last time you slept?"

Yang answered for her. "She hasn't slept properly all week. Hasn't eaten well either."

Redbreath scratched his chin. "I see. Very well then. It is obviously not safe to be in here in her condition. Therefore, Miss Belladonna, until you have slept properly, you are no longer welcome in here. Return when you have rested."

Blake tried to protest. "But Professor-"

She was cut off when Redbreath rose to his full, intimidating height. "Miss Belladonna." He warned, his voice full of authority and power. "Leave."

Swallowing her protests, Blake rose off of the floor and walked out, shutting the door behind her with a quiet thud.

The rest of Professor Redbreath's lesson went by without too many other complications. Towards the end, Emerald walked over to Mercury. "There's something strange about that teacher."

"Really, you think?"

Ignoring her partner's sarcastic response, she pushed her point. "No I mean, there's just something off about him."

"Hmmm… yes, you may be right. We should watch him, just in case."

"I have an idea." Emerald waited for an opportunity and she didn't have to wait long. She waited until the end of class when Redbreath took some sort of bun out of his pocket then start to eat it before she stealthily approached him from behind. Carefully, she reached into his back pocket, (more like a separate pouch then a true pocket) and removed his scroll as she walked past. Without looking at it, she placed the stolen scroll in her own pocket and made for the door. But before she could reach it…

"Miss Sustrai, a word if you will."

Slightly nervous, Emerald turned to face the teacher. "Yes, Professor?"

Might I see the thing that you just stole from my pocket please?"

Emerald tried to lie her way out. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Really? I was under the impression that you were smart. I'm talking about the object you just took from my pocket."

Reluctantly, Emerald reached into her pocket to return the man's scroll, but frowned when her hands touched something… sticky. Curious, she pulled out the object, only to find that it wasn't a scroll but rather, the bun-looking thing Redbreath had been eating moments earlier. "What?"

She looked up to Redbreath holding two scrolls. One was his and the other… Her eyes went wide as she reached into her other pocket, where she kept her own scroll, only to come out empty handed.

Redbreath reached over and took the bun from Emeralds still outstretched hand. "Stealing someone else's Sweetroll. Have you no shame?"

"What?" Emerald was stunned. She could have sworn that she had grabbed the man's scroll! And when did he get hers? "How did you… What?!"

"Little tip, Miss Sustrai. Never steal from a master." He handed over Emeralds scroll and smirked. As Emerald turned to leave, she heard the Professor say, "One last thing."

She turned to see Redbreath balancing a rather large knife on the end or his finger. He flipped the knife into the air then, faster than the eye can see, threw the knife towards her. It stopped, buried in the wall a centimetre away from her finger. "Never steal from me again!"

With that, Emerald turned and scampered away before more things could be thrown.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Line break XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 **"** You _what?"_

It was night, and the members of team RWBY were in their dorm room. Blake was sitting on her bed with her arms crossed.

 **"** We want you to go to the dance." Ruby said.

 **"** That's ridiculous."

Yang spoke up. "Blake, we're worried about you. This investigation is starting to mess with your head."

Weiss started to count on her fingers "You _can't_ sleep, you _hardly_ eat, and to be honest, your _grades_ have been suffering. Even Redbreath, possibly the most irresponsible teacher on the face of the planet thinks it's not safe to continue like this.

 **"** You think I care about _grades?"_ Blake shrugged and then gestured out the window franticly. People's _lives_ are at stake!

Yang put her hand on Blake's, gently lowering it. "We _know_ , and we're also trying to figure out what Torchwick is up to."

"Thanks to you and Sun, we know that they're operating somewhere outside of southeast Vale." Ruby said.

 _"_ _And_ ," Weiss continued on, "the Schnee company records singled out Vale as the primary target for Dust robberies over the last few months."

"Don't forget about their missing military tech too." Yang added.

It wasn't enough for Blake. "But there's still unanswered questions!"

 **"** Blake, you won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open." Ruby pointed out.

"All we're asking is that you take it easy for _one day."_

"It will be fun!" Weiss assured her teammate. "Yang and I will make sure of it."

"Yeah! We're planning the whole event!" the blonde brawler pumped her fists enthusiastically, causing the bed to bounce Blake into the air slightly _._

 **"** _Excuse_ me?"

Weiss explained. "Team CFVY's away mission lasted _quite_ longer than expected."

Yang carried on, "So, Weiss and I decided to pick up where they left off. And now we can make sure you can have the perfect night."

 **"** And once it's all over, we'll return for our search, rested and ready."

"So what do ya think?" Ruby asked.

 **"** I think this is a colossal waste of time." Blake walked away from the group and opened the dorm door. "I'll be in the library." She walked out of the room.

"Great." Yang explained sarcastically.

"She can't keep going on like this."

At that moment, there was a knock at the door. Weiss approached and opened it, but nothing could have prepared her for the horror on the other side. It was Jaune. _With a guitar. "Weiss!"_

Getting over her shock, Weiss slammed the door in his face.

Jaune kept knocking on the door. "Oh, come on, open the door! I promise not to sing."

With a sigh, Weiss reluctantly opened the door, only for Laune to go into a song. **"** I _lied!_ Weiss Schu- _nee_ , will you accompany _me_ , to the dance _on_... _Sunday!_

 **"** Are you done?"

Jaune shrugged uncertainly. "Yes?"

"No." With that, Weiss shut the door in his face for the second time in a minute. Turning around, she saw the two remaining members of her team staring at her _._ "What?"

Both girls were standing precariously, at a comically tilted angle .

 **"** And that is why they call you the Ice Queen." Yang said as Ruby finally collapsed.

"All my life, boys have only cared about the perks of my last name." Weiss paused. "Besides, I already have a date in mind."

 **"** Date or no date," Ruby said as she picked herself up off of the ground. "None of this will matter if we can't get Blake to go."

Meanwhile, in another dorm room, a much more sinister discussion was taking place. Cinder Fall was sewing a black dress as she sat on one of the beds, while Emerald was sitting on the floor while looking at her scroll, and Mercury was lying on the ground and reading a comic book.

"And finally, Finn Redbreath." Cinder said.

"Ahh, the nut job," Mercury remarked.

"yeah," Emerald agreed. "That guy is Crazy!"

"Oh? How so?"

"When we walked in, the first thing he did was make us take him on in single combat." Mercury explained. "Then he accidentally released a Beowolf into the classroom."

"Then, he took it on without using his weapon." Emerald added on. "but the weirdest thing... he killed it _with his voice!_ Shouted it apart! Even more than that, he seemed to be able to tell, or at least suspect something, when I used my semblance."

"What an interesting semblance. See if you can try to manipulate him. He could prove a valuable asset to our cause."

"would we even be able to do that? He seems really smart." Emerald said.

"we could try to overpower him" Mercury suggested.

"It's not about overpowering an enemy." Cinder said. "It's about taking away what power they have. And we will, in time."

 **"** I hate waiting," Mercury complained.

 **"** Don't worry, Mercury. We have a fun weekend ahead of us."

 **A.N: wow. this chapter was huge. I have never written anything this big before. as always, tell me if you see any mistakes or errors, especially in a chapter this big.**

 **Review replies**

 **Jack Whitters: Thanks, I work really hard to make Redbreath such a unique and memorable character. It's really fun to write for him, because it gives you so many possibilities.**

 **cooleffects99: Yeah, the beast blood isn't going to play a really big part in this. After all, a werewolf looks a lot like a Beowolf, and we don't really want him being hunted do we? Although, it will play a small part, albeit changed slightly. Instead of just turning him into a giant monster, in his human form it gives him enhanced senses, like superior night vision compared to a human.**

 **RandomScotsman: yeah, I was thinking of having him summon something with his shouts, but I haven't decided what yet. Who knows, it might not even be a dragon, he might use the Call of Valour.**

 **Thanks everyone for reading and don't forget to review this so know how you feel**


	6. Chapter 6: Infiltration

**A.N. Hello again. I'm back with another chapter. I'm sorry that I'm a week late, but I was busy with... other stuff. Any way, I'm back now and you guys are in for a bit of a treat.**

 **But first. Review replies.**

 **DragonSlayer98: Thanks, I aim to please. And as for stealing the clothes off of other peoples bodies, sadly I have to say no, he's not that good. Besides, that would get pretty awkward and you can't shout all problems away. But anyway, I'm glad to see that I managed to write him correctly. It's actually quite easy to write someone like that.**

 **Guest: Thanks. Here you go, another chapter,** ** _for your face!_**

Darkness. Emptiness. This was all he had known for what seemed like an eternity. He drifted in the void between worlds, neither dead nor alive, just… existing. At first, he had raged, he had screamed, he cursed at those who had doomed him to such a fate. But eventually, he stopped.

And now, he waited, biding his time, so he could once more return to the land of the living, and at last have his revenge.

 **"** I need _you_ to pick a tablecloth." Ruby Rose was shaken out of a glum reverie by Weiss Schnee sliding two squares of cloth over the table.

Ruby looked at them for a moment before asking, somewhat confused, "Aren't they both the same?"

Weiss sighed in frustration. "I don't even know why I asked!"

As Weiss walked off to see to other preparations, Yang walked over to her sister carrying a massive sound speaker on her shoulder. She dropped the massive piece of technology, the weight of the impact causing the table, chair and girl to jump into the air for a second. **"** So, have you picked out a dress yet?"

 **"** What's the point?" Ruby moaned. "Who cares about the dance if Blake isn't going?"

"Oh, don't worry; she's going." She looked to her left with an exasperated look on her face. "Weiss! I thought we agreed: No doilies!"

Weiss walked up to Yang, and pointed in her face _._ "If _I_ don't get doilies, _you_ don't get fog machines!" The girl's argument was interrupted by the sound of doors opening.

Neptune and Sun walked in. "Your dance is gonna have fog machines?"

"We were thinking about it..." Weiss said.

 **"** That's pretty cool."

Sun walked over and, to Weiss' ire, started acting suave. "You ladies all excited for dress-up?"

"Pfft... Yeah, right!"

Yang, on the other hand, said, "Laugh all you want. _I'll_ be turning heads tomorrow night!"

Weiss mentally took in Sun and Neptune's appearance. "What are you two wearing?"

 **"** Uuhhh... _this_?" Sun gestured to his current shirtless outfit.

Neptune stepped forward and held a hand in front of his friend's face. "Ignore him for he knows not what he says."

Sun knocked Neptune's hand away from his face. "Hey, I may have moved to Mistral, but I grew up in Vacuo. It's not exactly a shirt-and-tie kind of place."

"Yeah, we noticed."

The monkey faunus rubbing the back of his head, preparing to ask the question that everyone was thinking. " Soooo... what does Blake think of all this? She still being all, y'know... Blake-y?"

 **"** Obviously." Weiss turned and crossed her arms in disapproval.

 **"** I still can't think of a way to change her mind."

"Guys," Yang said as she started to walk out. "Trust me; Blake _will_ be at the dance tomorrow."

And she was. She strolled through the doors, walking arm in arm with Sun Wukong. As they danced together, the rest of Team RWBY watched on from the sidelines.

 **"** I told you she would come." Yang said to her teammates.

 **"** Mission accomplished." Weiss confirmed.

Ruby turned to her teammates. "Soooo, what do we do now?"

 **"** Just have fun!" Yang exclaimed, she proceeded to walk away and do so, with Weiss going the opposite direction and leaving Ruby behind.

Ruby shouted after her sister: "Does that mean I can change out of these stupid things and into my hood now?" Upon receiving no answer, she looked down at her painful footwear. "Stupid lady stilts!"

 **"** Not enjoying yourself?"

Surprised, Ruby spun around to find out who had spoken to her, only to see headmaster Ozpin step up by her side. Ruby shook her head and laughed. "Oh, no, everything's fine! I'm just not much of a fancy pantsy... dancey girl."

Ozpin chuckled. **"** Well, you can't spend your whole life on the battlefield, even if you may want to."

Ruby crossed her arms, an annoyed look passing over her face. "Yeah, that lesson's been floating around a lot lately."

Ozpin stared out at the dancing couples, seemingly deep in thought. "If you think about it, fighting and dancing aren't so different. Two partners interlocked, although one wrong move on the ballroom merely leads to a swollen foot."

Ruby looked down at her own feet. "Or a twisted ankle."

 **"** It's not every day that friends are able to come together like this," Ozpin said. "Time has a way of testing our bonds, but it's nights like these that can help keep them stronger than ever. Nights like these are ones we'll never forget."

Ruby smiled at the words of wisdom, but turned her head when she heard the sound of the doors opening. Yang was back behind the podium, and thus was the first to see the new arrival.

Professor Redbreath walked through the door. He'd swapped out his usual brown and tan robes that he wore when teaching and instead was wearing a set of fur clothes. It had a simple brown undershirt beneath a cloak made of heavy-looking fur. A satchel hung at his side and when he moved, Yang could have sworn that she heard the clanking sound of glass bottles. Around his neck was a strange-looking amulet, shaped like two axe heads.

"Professor Redbreath. Lookin' good!"

"Thank you, Miss Xiao Long. Now if you will excuse me, I must go speak to someone."

Not a moment after he had gone, the doors opened again and two more people walked in, Mercury, with Emerald beside him.

"You guys are just in time!"

Mercury smiled. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

An hour later, the party was in full swing. Professor Redbreath was telling a story about a cake and an old woman while Doctor Oobleck and Professor Port laughed. Ozpin stood off to the side with Glynda Goodwitch until General Ironwood offered his hand for her to dance with him. People danced, talked, or otherwise just stood around having fun.

At least, most people. Jaune approached Ruby, who was standing pensively near the refreshments tables.

 **"** I see you're hiding at the punch bowl too."

"Yep," Ruby said, popping the 'P'.

Jaune raised his glass of punch. "To the socially awkward."

Ruby giggled and raised her own glass, as they clinked them together.

 **"** Sorry things didn't work out with Weiss."

Jaune shrugged. "Meh, it's fine. Neptune's pretty _"cool"_. I get why she went with him."

Ruby frowned. "What do you mean?"

 **"** Well, come on," Jaune said, as he started to drink his punch. "Not many people can pull off _blue_ hair."

"No, I mean, Weiss came to the dance alone."

Jaune choked on his drink in surprise, coughing and sputtering into his cup. "What?"

They looked towards Weiss, who was trying desperately to coax life out of a wilting white rose. When she fails, she looked visibly upset.

Ruby continued speaking. "Yeah, she said that she had too much to focus on to worry about boys."

Laughter draws there attention to Sun, Blake, and Neptune as the latter entertained the others with some impressions and other silly faces _._

Jaune let out a low growl. " _Hold my punch"._

Jaune handed Ruby his glass and a second after he vanished from sight, she took a sneaky drink from his cup. As Jaune made his way across the room, shoving other students aside (some of which were not even in his path), he stops short and watches as Pyrrha passed by. He watched her walk glumly up the stairs and had a change of heart, following after her.

Meanwhile, Ruby decided to walk the other way, towards where Yang was standing on the second floor.

 **"** You know? I think we really needed this." Yang said as she leaned on the handrail. They looked down at the on-going festivities below.

Blake and Sun were slow dancing while Ren and Nora appeared to be Waltzing. Even Penny was in attendance, dancing alone, guarded by two Atlas Soldiers.

 **"** Yeah, and you did a great job planning it too!" Ruby said

Yang reached over to Ruby, pulling the flailing girl in to a bone-crushing one-handed hug. "Aw, thanks! It wasn't all me, though. Weiss did a lot too."

Ruby stops struggling and looked down at Weiss, who was sitting by herself. Neptune approached and rubbed his neck nervously. After a few seconds, Weiss invited him to sit with her.

Yang sighed. "Tomorrow it's back to work."

 **"** I'm sure we can handle whatever gets thrown at us." Ruby said. Sudden fits of laughter and giggles drew their attention below. "Ex- _cept_ for that."

They were currently looking at a dress-wearing Jaune Arc.

As the cross-dressing swordsman and his team burst into a surprisingly good dance number, Ruby walked away to the balcony nearby. Stepping out onto it, she noticed the balcony's other inhabitant. Professor Redbreath leaned on the railing, occasionally taking a swig from a glass bottle. As Ruby got closer, her nose picked up the slightly hazy fumes of some sort of alcohol.

"Um… Professor Redbreath, I don't think that we're allowed alcohol here. It sets a bad example."

Redbreath chuckled. "Funny, I was going to say that we're not exactly allowed to fight giant robot suits with mob-bosses in them under a highway over pass either, but you don't see me complaining."

Ruby looked away for a second, embarrassed, before looking up again. "So…Professor, I'm kinda surprised to see you here, to tell the truth. I didn't think you were the type for dancing."

"Hmmm… well, you're not wrong. I'm not much of a dancer, but I still didn't want to miss out. Especially after what happened last year."

"What happened last year?"

The professor chuckled to himself. "That's between me and the governor of Mistral. All I can tell you is that it involved several bottles of mead and a goat."

Ruby looked slightly confused at that, and was about to ask what happened, when movement in the corner of here eye caught her attention. She looked to here right just in time to see a figure clad entirely in black free-running across the nearby buildings. "Professor!" She cried.

"I see her."

What do we do?" Ruby asked.

Redbreath took a swig from his bottle then placed it back into his satchel. "We chase her." He responded.

They immediately got to work, Ruby using her semblance to cross from the balcony to the adjacent rooftop. Redbreath took in a breath and then cried, "WULD!" He shot forward at the speed of a bullet, landing on the rooftop rather uncertainly.

He then turned and started to run after Ruby, stopping when they reached the end of the rooftop. They looked on as the black clad infiltrator knocked out a guard out the front of the CCT then walked in. They ran after her, jumping to the ground and then moving across the court yard.

Halfway there, Ruby stopped, and pulled out her scroll. She pressed a button and a few seconds later a rocket-propelled locker slammed into the ground a few metres away. The locker opened, revealing Crescent Rose in its compact form. Ruby ran forward and grabbed the weapon, then turned to see Redbreath waiting.

"Ready?" the teacher asked.

"Uh Professor… you're unarmed."

Redbreath laughed. "Miss Rose, I'm always armed. At Ruby's inquiring look he reached into his satchel and somehow pulled out a bow that should NOT have been able to fit in there and a quiver of multicoloured arrows.

"Wait, how did you fit those in there?"

"Miss Rose, unless I am mistaken, right now you are holding a small metal box that transforms into a giant farming tool. Probably not a good idea to ask how I fit this in my bag."

Ruby nodded, accepting this logic, then asked, "What about close-Quarters though?"

In response, Redbreath reached into his bag and drew out the most awesome-looking axe Ruby had ever seen. It was beautiful in a harsh 'I'm going to gut you like a fish' kind of way. It was about as long as her arm, with two wickedly sharp-looking heads attached to it. The heads were designed with howling wolf motifs and the edges gleamed in the light of the broken moon.

Ruby couldn't help but give an awed shiver when she saw it. She shook the feeling off and focused on the task at hand. She fully extended Crescent Rose and chambered a round, then took off after her teacher toward the door. They stopped outside it, Ruby stumbling a little due to her shoes. Redbreath saw this and asked, "Are you sure you can fight in those?"

Ruby nodded. "Yes."

"Very well then. You take the elevator up there, I will find another way up so I can surprise her. Be quick."

With that the teacher took off running around the side of the building, leaving Ruby alone. Cursing the high heels she still wore, she rode the elevator to the top of the building.

Stepping out, she looked around. "Hello?" She stumbles once again. "Is anyone there? Hello?"

A woman dressed in a form-fitting black outfit with a black mask on stepped out of her hiding place behind a computer and steps out toward Ruby.

 **"** Excuse me?" Ruby said. "You know, it's not a masquerade party, so why don't you take off that-!"

The woman produces a container of ice Dust and sends shards of ice flying at Ruby before she could finish her sentence. Ruby spun the scythe and destroyed the ice shards then returned fire with Crescent Rose. The woman somehow blocked the shots _with her hands!_ before raising them again. With a flash of fire, two curved swords appeared in her hands. Ruby leapt forward swinging Crescent Rose, but the lady back-flipped away. The swords burst into glowing shards then reformed into a bow. She fired several arrows which Ruby barely dodged.

The two combatants stared at each other, ready to keep going. Then suddenly, the window on the right side of the room _exploded_ as Redbreath _blasted_ into the room. He rolled to a stop and came up in a crouching position. His arm was a blur of movement as he raised his axe and then _threw it_ at the woman in black. She swung her weapon up and deflected the axe, before raising the bow and firing another arrow.

Redbreath was quick to react, leaping to the side and drawing his own bow. He knocked an arrow with light, golden coloured feathers at the base. He fired, and the arrow shot forward. The woman dodged again, but wasn't expecting the arrow to _burst into a ball of light on impact!_ Bright, pure sunlight blasted out of the arrow, blinding the woman for a split second. Redbreath used this time to run forward and scoop up his axe from the ground. He charged the woman, who barely had time to raise the swords in her hands.

The blades locked, and the two pushed against each other. Ruby raised Crescent Rose, but she couldn't get a good angle on her target without also hitting her teacher. Said teacher pushed against the blades used by his enemy, but lurched forward when the woman suddenly leapt backwards. Redbreath stumbled but regained his footing. "Alright then." He said. "It's on." He braced himself for what he was about to do. "Feel the thunder of my voice!" He yelled. He opened his mouth, took a deep breath and then _shouted_ **"FUS… ROH DAH!"** A wave of pure _force_ blasted out of his mouth, striking the woman and knocking her back several meters, where she smashed against a wall. She groaned and stood back up. Redbreath raised his axe once again, ready to end it all with one throw.

But just as he was about to hurl it, there was a quiet *ding* behind them. Redbreath snarled and turned to face this new arrival, but was surprised when he saw that it was General Ironwood himself.

His split seconds hesitation was all the mysterious woman needed. She raised her bow and fired an arrow, not at Redbreath but rather the man behind him. Ironwood.

Faster than should have been humanly possible, Redbreath leapt to the side, shot his arm up and caught the arrow, _with his bare hand!_

He turned to the woman, only to see her leap up and jump out of the window that Redbreath had smashed on his way in. The erratic Professor ran to the window, and saw the woman land on a rooftop several metres away. She immediately ran over the top of it, onto the other side and out of his view.

Redbreath roared in anger and threw his axe into the ground beside him, furious at his escaped quarry. "Azura curse her!" he cried. Then he remembered that he had company and sat down on the floor in a huff.

General Ironwood looked the man in front of him up and down, arms crossed in front of his chest. "You better have a good explanation for what's happening here."

 **A.N. I think I'll just leave it there for today. I spent all afternoon writing this, so hopefully it's good enough.**

 **Also, I am still willing to accept ideas for an OC, so if you want too, send me your ideas. Keep in mind, they must be able to go toe-to-toe with Redbreath in combat.**

 **As always, leave a review of what you think of it, or even if you see any spelling or Grammatical errors that I should know about. And if you haven't done it already, favourite and follow this. it really makes my day seeing this succeed.**

 **Right, I'm out off here.**

 **The Kitty Killer, Signing off.**


	7. Chapter 7: Patience is not easy

**A.N: Hello again. First off, i would like to apologize for being so late with this update. I would have Updated sooner,but i was absolutely** ** _swamped_** **with assignments and homework and other stuff, so i didn't have much time to write. But that's all behind me now, and I should have more free time to write, so don't be too disappointed.**

 **I should probably mention that this chapter is rather short, but again, i have been rather busy. So for now, enjoy.**

 **Edit: this chapter has been edited as of 2/10/2016**

Chapter 7: Patience is not easy

He felt it. A stirring in the great expanse of nothingness. Instantly, he was aware. He sent out a probing feeler of consciousness. A way out! He approached, pulling forth a thousand tiny particles, pieces of creation itself. He grasped at something immaterial, and pulled with hands that, technically, didn't exist.

He would have frowned if he had a mouth. He had to remedy that. He willed it, and it happened. The piece of creation in front of him flashed, and suddenly he could feel again. Truly feel. A body!

The newly remade being clutched at his prize, tangible for first time in centuries. He looked at it. And he smiled. The item he held was knowledge, and knowledge… was power. He absorbed this knowledge, this power, felt it fill his entire being, and then he knew, exactly, what he had to do.

He opened his mouth, took in his first breath in centuries, and shouted! His voice boomed, echoing through the infinite void around him, and struck something, there was a flash, and the fabric of the universe was violently torn asunder, rent in to by the force of his voice.

He approached the tear, feeling its pull, and laughed. No more would he be stuck here, doomed to spend eternity thinking. He stepped forward. His freedom awaited, as did his vengeance.

"They were here... Ozpin, they were _here!"_ the furious voice of James Ironwood broke the silence that otherwise would have filled the air. He and Ozpin, as well as Glynda Goodwitch were all standing in Ozpin's office, the ticking of large gears playing a quiet backdrop to their argument as Ironwood angrily slammed his fist against Ozpin's desk.

 **"** We're very much aware of that!" Goodwitch said. "Thank you, James."

 **"** Fantastic! You're aware!" Ironwoods voice was basically dripping sarcasm. "Now are we going to do something about it or should we just stay the course and continue to ignore what's _right_ in front of us?!"

An alert sound played, interrupting the argument and signifying that someone has arrived on the elevator.

"Come in." Ozpin called out.

The elevator doors opened, revealing Ruby Rose and Finn Redbreath. Redbreath stepped out first, followed by Ruby.

 **"** Sorry it took so long. Someone accidentally hit all the buttons on the elevator on the way up here." Ruby paused before quickly pointing a finger at the Teacher beside her. "It was him."

Redbreath, for his part, simply shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time," Ozpin muttered to himself. Talking normally, he said, "Thank you for coming, Ruby. How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I guess." The red-hooded girl said. "I'd feel better if my bad-guy-catching record wasn't O-for-three." Everyone stared at her silently, "Okay, so that's the tone we're going for, got it."

Ironwood stepped forward. "Ruby, I feel it's appropriate to let you know that I think what you did last night is exactly what being a Huntress is all about. You recognized a threat. You took action. And you did the very best you could."

"Thank you, sir."

Ozpin took a sip from his coffee mug, and Redbreath silently wondered if the Headmaster ran on Caffeine alone. "Now, the general here has already informed us of the events that... transpired last night, but now that you've rested, we were wondering if you had anything to add."

"Was anyone else with her?" Glynda asked. "Did she look familiar to you at all?"

"I... I don't know," Ruby stammered. "She was wearing a mask, and she never said anything to me. But I know she fought with glass. I don't think that was her Semblance, though. Her clothing lit up whenever she attacked."

"If I might butt in here," Redbreath said, temporarily putting aside the Coffee-Lifestyle Choices dilemma. "She seemed incredibly powerful. Not only was she able to survive my… err… my semblance, but she was able to stand up _and_ attack the General, at speeds that even I would have trouble topping. On top of that, she survived a jump out of a 30 story building. Even I would think twice about that."

Glynda fiddled with her riding crop. "Save for the glass and window jumping, that sounds like the woman I fought the night we met Ruby.

Ironwood waved it off. "Embedding Dust into clothing is an age-old technique. It could have been anyone."

 **"** Wait." Ruby was coming to her own conclusions. "You think this girl is connected to Torchwick and the White Fang?

"It's possible." Ozpin conceded. "But we still lack the required evidence to link the two together."

The look on Ruby's face was downright crafty now. "Actually, I think I remember her saying something about a hideout, or something, in the southeast. Just outside the Kingdom."

Redbreath made a strange, confused noise. Ozpin, on the other hand, just raised an eyebrow slightly. "Interesting."

Glynda looked skeptical. "I thought you said the intruder never—"

But Ozpin interrupted her. "Thank you for your cooperation, Ruby. Why don't you go and spend some time with your team? You have a big day ahead of you."

Ruby turned to leave. "Any time."

"And Miss Rose, please try and be ... discreet about this matter."

"Yes sir."

Redbreath started to turn as well, but Ozpin stopped him. "Finn… a word, if you will."

Finn straightened. "Of course."

They waited until Ruby had stepped into the elevator and the door had closed behind her before starting. The moment she was gone, Finn walked forward and placed his hands on the desk, staring resolutely into Ozpin's eyes. "All right Ozpin, What's going on? I've been here for three years now, and this has never happened before now. Who was she, and what was she doing?"

Ozpin sighed again. "Finn… what fairytales do they have where you come from?"

"Huh?" That seemingly random question threw off the Breton's focus. "W-what do you mean?"

"Fairytales. Folk stories. Legends about the world. Surely there must be some?"

Redbreath thought for a moment. "Well… there are heaps. There's… the story of Miraak the Traitor, the Tale of the Tongues, Alduin the world- devourer." He paused for a moment and then added beneath his breath, "The Last Dragonborn." He looked up again. "Why do you ask? What have legends got to do with anything?"

Ozpin took another sip from his cup, and then placed the mug down, with a quiet clink. "Many things in this world are not as they seem, and sometimes, those things that we believe to be false, are actually true. Think on that for a while. I will explain properly after the first years have completed their missions. I believe that _you_ volunteered to lead one personally, correct?"

"Yes, of course. I will wait. But I expect an explanation Ozpin, one way or another." With that said, he turned and marched off to the elevator, the doors closing with a soft _ding_ behind him.

"That man is going to be the death of me someday," Glynda remarked. "Are you sure that telling him is a good idea?"

"I have nothing but faith in him. If we are to involve him, we must start to trust each other, no matter our differences."

Ironwood entered the conversation again. "If you're willing to trust him, then so am I. But we already have another problem."

"And just what do you suggest we do about it then James?"

Ironwood's response was upfront. "We send as many troops as we can to the southeast, find out exactly what's going on, and eradicate any forces that stand in our way."

Glynda growled in frustration. "Why must your answer to everything involve a triumphant display of military bravado!? You treat every situation like a contest of measuring di—!"

"Glynda!" Ozpin interrupted his friend before she could finish swearing.

Glynda crossed her arms. "Well, he does."

"She's right." Ozpin said. "As much as I too would love to end this situation once and for all, we must remember that this may go beyond Vale. Beyond Beacon." The grey-haired headmaster paused. "And if this truly is part of some master plan for which we know not the final move, we mustn't be so bold. Nor can we risk the spread of panic."

"I have served you faithfully for years..." Ironwood began. "But if you mean to tell me that your plan is to hold the defenses, and wait—!"

Ozpin rose out of his chair. "It is _not!_ You're a general, James. So tell me, when you prepare to go to war, which do you send in first? The flag bearers, or the scouts?"

Redbreath walked down the hall to his office, grumbling as he did so. He was not a patient man, and waiting did not suit him. That was one of the reasons why he was such an avid explorer, roaming the wilds of Skyrim, and before that, High Rock.

After the threats posed by Alduin, Harkon and Miraak were taken care of, he had left Skyrim and gone south, where there were new places to see. He visited the Imperial City in Cyrodiil, before wandering south to Elsweyr. He even braved the swamps of Black Marsh, the homeland of the Argonians, spending several weeks slogging through waste high water and battling the giant monsters that called the province home, before he gave up and returned to Cyrodiil.

Still grumbling, he opened the door to his room and walked in. The staff quarters were slightly larger than the student dormitories, which suited him fine. The room was decorated in Nordic style, inspired by his travels in Skyrim. Several bookshelves were propped up against the wall on the left-hand side of the room, next to a large wooden desk that overflowed with large reams of paper and other writing materials. There were also some display cases, where he kept several valuable and dangerous items.

As he walked over to them, he could see items held within. The one on the right contained one of his three elder scrolls, the scroll of blood. The middle case stored a Black Book, a mysterious book that, when read, transports the reader to Hermaeus Mora's realm of oblivion, Apocrypha. The final case contained possibly the most dangerous item on Remnant: The Wabbajack. The staff had been given to him by none other than Sheogorath, the deadric prince of madness, and he didn't trust himself to touch it. Who knows what would happen if he were to take it out of its case, especially after last time…

The back wall had several weapons racks attached, with an armour mannequin beside it. The mannequin had the Armour of Ahzidal strapped to it. The Dragonborn took a moment to gaze at the ancient armour. He didn't wear it nearly enough, often choosing to wear his Arch mage robes whenever he was teaching.

Then his gaze turned to the right side of the room. A straw bed sat in the corner, next to a wardrobe. At the foot was a wooden chest filled with various mementos, small weapons and other assorted items. A door in the wall led out to a small balcony, with a small table and two chairs, should he ever have company.

He walked over to the chest and started to take out what he would need. Ozpin had been correct, he had volunteered to lead a group of First-years on their first mission, and he had a sneaking suspicion which team he would end up leading.

With that in mind, he began to pack, taking everything he would need. He packed a large bear pelt to sleep in, correctly assuming that there would not be beds in the wild. He packed several other essentials, including Azura's Star, the magic soul gem he had been given by the deadric prince. As he was pulling his hand out, his fingers brushed something made of fabric. He felt around, ignoring the several pointy things that poked him, then grabbed whatever it was and pulled it out. It was the Shadow Cloak of Nocturnal, the mystical cloth he had been given by Nocturnal when he became one of her Nightingales. That could be useful.

He raised his head when he heard an announcement over the loudspeaker. _"Would all first-year students please report to the amphitheater?"_ That was his cue to leave. Turning to go, his eyes roved over the Armour of Ahzidal once again, and he had an idea. "Hmmm… well, it was been a while…"

Team RWBY stood in the schools amphitheater, watching as Ozpin stepped away from the microphone, having given his customary Pre-mission speech.

 **"** This is perfect!" Ruby said. "All we have to do is shadow a Huntsman working in the southeast!"

 **"** Yeah!" Yang pumped her fist. "We'll follow them around by day and give them the slip by night!"

Weiss had an idea. "Let's check 'search and destroy'!"

Team RWBY approached the wall of screens and looked at the options before seeing one.

"Here we go! Quadrant 5 needs Grimm cleared out!"

 **"** Well, it's in the southeast." Blake said.

 **"** Sounds perfect!" Yang agreed.

Ruby selected it and typed in the team's name. However, they quickly ran into their first problem. A message flashed onto the screen. 'Mission Unavailable to first year students.'

 **"** Wonderful!" Weiss said with no amount of sarcasm.

 **"** Any other ideas?"

Ruby thought for a moment. "We _mail_ ourselves there!"

 **"** Well, that's one option." Team RWBY looked to the right, startled. Where a few seconds ago there was no one there, the space was suddenly occupied by none other than Ozpin himself. "Unfortunately, we determined that the concentration of Grimm was too extreme for first-year students. It seems that _particular_ region is rather popular. In fact, I have the sneaking suspicion that you four will make your way there no matter which job you choose."

Weiss, Blake, and Yang turned to glare at Ruby, who nervously rubbed her head. "Whatever makes you say that?"

Ozpin continued his tirade. "I'm still curious how you all found yourself at the docks last semester. I'm interested to know how you really learned about a hideout in the southeast. And I certainly wonder why witnesses reported seeing robots and rose petals in a dance club some time ago."

The scarlet-clad huntress had no answer for this. "Um... well..."

 **"** I doubt I'll ever find the exact answers I'm looking for. So how about this: instead of waiting for you all to break the rules, why don't we just _bend_ them?"

Ozpin pressed some buttons on his scroll, and the hologram screen made a noise.

Team RWBY looked at each other, excited, then Ruby faced Ozpin again. "We won't let you down. Thank you, professor."

Ozpin shook his head. "Do not thank me for this. Teamwork and persistence have carried you far. But you must understand, the things that await you beyond the protection of the Kingdom will not care. Because this mission is so dangerous, we will be assigning two Huntsmen to you, instead of one. Stay close to them at all times, and do exactly as they say. They will be leading you on this mission, and they can have you sent back to Beacon, if they find your skills to be unsatisfactory. Good luck." With this he walked away.

Team RWBY left the auditorium somewhat disheartened. Yang was the first one to speak. "That wasn't exactly uplifting."

 **"** But it's the truth." Blake pointed out.

 **"** It's gonna to be tough, but I know we can do it!"

A second year student ran past the team, interrupting there conversation. "Hey! Team CFVY is back!"

Beacon students started to gather around to witness the return of Team CFVY. Blake walked up to the rabbit-eared Velvet Scarlatina, obviously worried for her fellow faunus. "Velvet? Are you okay?"

The faunus nodded. "I'm fine. I had Yatsuhashi to look out for me."

 **"** Your mission was supposed to end a _week_ ago!" Weiss exclaimed. "What happened?"

Velvet shook her head. "Nothing happened. It was just ... there were just so many..."she looked up and noticed Team RWBY's worried expressions. "Oh, but don't worry. You first-years are just shadowing Huntsmen, so you should be fine." She assured.

 ** _"_** _Right."_

Velvet looked back at her team. "I should go. Be safe, okay?"

 **"** We can do this." Ruby said, her voice regaining her confidence. "We've never backed down before, and we're not going to start now."

 **"** Right."

 **"** Besides, it won't only be us out there!" Ruby continued excitedly. "We'll be fighting alongside not one but _two_ genuine Huntsmen!

"Yeah!"

As they walked over to the landing pads, Ruby could hardly contain her excitement. "Ohhh…! This is gonna be _sooo_ awesome!"

It _sooo_ wasn't.

"Why, hello girls!" Doctor Oobleck said. "Who's ready to fight for their lives?"

 **A.N: This is the part where i would normally answer reviews... except this time, i didn't get any. If I can't get input on what i'm writing, i won't be able to know what you want. Send me anything, praise, criticism, scathing insults (especially that last one, i need a good laugh.) anything is welcome.**

 **Thanks for bearing with me on this long wait, and as usual, if you see any mistakes, let me know. I am but a mortal man, and I can't always be perfect.**

 **'Til next time.**


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